Vocabulary Dept.

The other day someone used the word "sheeple" in response to a blog post. The original post was about someone who had used an unconventional bit of formatting in their book, and the reply was ... well, the fact that the word "sheeple" was involved should tell you something about where they were coming from and what their view was. (Out of politeness to everyone involved, I won't link the post and response; I've tried to be as accurate as possible in my rendition of what was going on.)

Many years ago, I used to know someone who used the word "sheeple" a great deal, and that person's use of it was almost inevitably fulsome and elitist. The not-so-unspoken insinuation was: All those people out there are mindless stumbling herds of morons, present company excepted of course. The more I learned about this person, the more I realized he had no right to such unearned contempt for "the masses", especially when he hadn't done a thing in his life to elevate himself above them ... except grouse about how his genius had gone unrecognized by the sheeple.

As I put it to a friend the other day, the only person you should worry about or angst over feeling superior to is the guy you were yesterday.